As data centers increase server density, server deployment and management continues to be a resource-intensive task. For example, a server administrator typically must log on to each server and individually configure each server for communicating on the network. The configuration of the servers and attached network devices (switches, bridges, and routers) must be carefully coordinated to ensure reliable and secure operation. This configuration is manually performed by a server administrator. Accordingly, administrating servers and network devices in data centers can be inefficient, time-consuming, costly, and potentially error-prone.
Attempts have been made to automate network and server management. Some systems use a layer of management software that controls both servers and network devices by interacting with their respective management interfaces. The difficulty of automatically managing a collection of servers and network devices from a variety of vendors is only partially mitigated by the availability of standard management protocols such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).
End-node-based techniques exist for monitoring aspects of network health and topology of interest to end nodes. These techniques are mildly intrusive to the end nodes and require some knowledge of the network configuration on the part of the end node administrator to be used effectively.